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antipodi
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Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:33 pm
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 The Horse a Potted History
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The Horse a Potted history
The Human-Horse Encounter
Archeological and paleontological evidence indicates that the horse was domesticated about 5,000 years ago, substantially later than other farm animals. By that time (approximately 3,000 B.C.E.), the dog had been our companion for 9,000 years and we had herded goats, sheep and cattle for upwards of 5,000 years. The horse came late into our lives but lost no time in transforming us.
Meat and Milk. Cave paintings in France leave no doubt that the horse was a prime food source for Stone-Age hunters. When the Stone Age ended and the Bronze Age began, human beings in Europe and Asia had had generations of experience working with animals, having mastered the skills of herding sheep, cattle and goats. They had also learned to herd horses, which they kept mainly for meat, possibly also for milk (as nomads in Central Asia still do today). People also had learned to cultivate grain and had abandoned hunting in roving bands in favor of settling in permanent communities. By 3,000 B.C.E., therefore, humans were assured of regular food supplies and then had the time to appreciate the horse for qualities other than its ability to feed a family of four for a week or so.
The earliest evidence of horse domestication has been found in the steppes of the eastern Ukraine, northern Caucasus, central Russia and Kazakhstan. Hunting horses had never been easy and taming them was even less so. Cattle and sheep are much slower than horses and easier to control in herds. The horse posed a greater challenge. Not only was he fast, he was no doubt as skittish then as he is today. Gaining the trust of the first horse must have been a difficult task, yet (fortunately) humans persisted.
The Cart Before the Horse? The prevailing view among paleo-historians is that the first horses to be tamed were hitched to carts before being mounted. They base their conclusions on early depictions of horses that appear to be too small to carry an adult human. From studying skeletons, it does appear that Bronze Age horses were only about the size of large ponies, about 14 hands (56") at the shoulder. Although the evidence does not establish conclusively that riding came first, I side with the minority that believes it did. Bronze Age horses were small, but so were Bronze Age people. Children today find it hard to resist the urge to climb on a pony's back; and it is not likely that human nature was much different in the Bronze Age. And size doesn’t really count -- even a pony can carry an adult a fair distance. It also seems to me that Bronze-Age people would have found it much simpler to climb on the back of a horse and ride off than to spend the days and weeks required to build a complicated rig like a chariot or a cart.
On the other hand, the majority may be right. Oxen, asses, onagers and other hoofed animals had been drawing carts in the Middle East well before the horse was tamed, and it would not have been impossible to adapt one of those carts for a small horse. And of course, with no one around to teach them, humans had to learn how to ride the hard way, by trial and error. Mounting a horse, however irresistible, is far easier than staying on! The horse's instinct is to panic and run away when someone tries to climb on its back, and to buck wildly once someone manages to get on. It must have taken a long time even after horses were used to being herded for human beings -- and horses -- to adjust to riding.
Evidence of riding before the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. (1,999-1,000 B.C.E.) is scant and circumstantial. Hard evidence emerges only toward the end of the first milliennium, almost 2,000 years after the horse was domesticated. Domestication and training of horses had a profound impact on the people of Eurasia. Suddenly, the horizon expanded; travel beyond the limits of one's own two legs became possible. Beckoned by unknown lands, people began to explore -- and to conquer.
The Heavy Horse
Coincidentally with the disintegration of the Roman Empire, several factors combined to bring the workhorse into being. The first was the introduction of heavier horses. The brawny draft horse was developed from horses introduced into Europe by the Germanic tribes of the north, where breeds tend to be heavier than those from the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The next factor was the introduction into Europe of the shoulder collar. Exactly when this invention immigrated from China is not clear. A variety of harnessing methods had been in use to hitch horses to carts and chariots in ancient times, but the shoulder collar (also called the horsecollar) is far and away the most efficient.
The horsecollar enabled farmers to take advantage of the horse’s greater speed and strength. With the horse, they could cultivate bigger fields and pull heavier loads to market.
Although mounted cavalry had been firmly established in European military campaigns for 1500 years, it was still limited in its usefulness. The situation changed completely when the stirrup reached the West by the 8th century. Its introduction caused a revolution in social organization. Because the stirrup enabled a heavily armored man to thrust with a lance or hack with his sword, the mounted soldier became far more deadly than he was in earlier times. The "Great Horse" needed for a metal-plated rider replaced the light chariot and unarmored cavalry horse and at the same time opened new opportunities for using horses. The mounted knight was so vital to medieval warfare that a landowner's position on the feudal ladder was measured by how many armored and mounted men he could supply his lord. In exchange for his lord's protection, the vassal pledged himself, or money or land sufficient to support a mounted fighting man. The feudal system was born.
A completely outfitted Medieval warhorse might be required to carry more than 200 pounds. This included the horse’s armor and the weight of the armored knight, including shield and lance.
Powering the Industrial Revolution
With the decline of feudal conflict and better farm yields from increased cultivation came the need for increased transportation throughout Europe. Stable central governments established a measure of law and order and organized the resources to build and maintain roads. And when the Great Horse was no longer needed to carry the knight in shining armor, demand for his strength came from the farmer and the merchant. The horse then truly filled every niche of the economy: pulling plows, stagecoaches, mail coaches, wagons, heavy carts and light carts, and trotting horizontal treadmills that turned the grindstones that made flour from grain. Even the first trains were horse-drawn on their steel tracks.
For 2,500 years, until the invention of the internal combustion engine, horses and horse-drawn vehicles were the only effective means to cover large distances, plow the soil, transport merchandise, and wage war. The result, from conquest to exploration to moving goods and people, is self-evident. Perhaps humans would have explored and colonized the entire planet without horses to carry them or their provisions, but that seems doubtful. For just one species, the influence of the horse has been immeasurably profound.
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